How to campaign

Inspired/outraged by what you’ve seen on this site? Want to do more? Find out how to be a Viva! campaigner.

Campaigning for Animals

Going veggie or even better vegan is, of course, the most effective thing any of us can do to help animals and end the destruction and waste of animal farming. You can also help by joining Viva! as a supporter and helping us in our vital work. But if you want to really get active, you can get more involved in a huge range of ways. There are still a lot of other people out there who know almost nothing about the way animals are treated and getting that message through to them is absolutely vital. Writing to companies, the Government and MPs helps to spread the word but the most important people to tell about animal abuse are the general public. They can really help animals by changing the way, they shop, the way they eat and the way they think. If you can help them to change, you can really make a difference to the lives of animals. These pages are about how you can support Viva!’s work by spreading the word about animal abuse.

There are four ways you can help – from just sitting at your computer to getting out on the street and banging the drum. You can do as much or as little as you feel comfortable with – it all helps!

Write Letters

Writing letters makes a difference.

Being an E-Campaigner

Use all the links, addresses and E-postcards on this site to put pressure on those responsible for animal suffering. Down the years we’ve found also that letters to local papers can be incredibly effective in generating interest in the general public and Viva! has specimen letters you can use on a range of issues. Also, think about the people you know. Are some of them interested in animals, or the environment or health? Why not email links to pages on our website you think they might be interested in. Once we get people to the website, they’ll start exploring and find out more. If you know someone thinking about going veggie or vegan, send them links to our Guides. What’s great about this form of campaigning is that people often send those links on to their friends.

Being a “Door Dropper”

Most people have little idea what takes place behind the closed doors of factory farms and abattoirs. We’ve learned that people respond very strongly to learning the truth and one very effective way to get it to them is to “door-drop”, ie deliver leaflets door to door.

Viva! has a range of leaflets covering many aspects of our campaigns and they are great introductions to the vegetarian issues. They all feature our contact details and offer a free “Go Vegan” pack and people do get in contact with us as a result of seeing them – and many of them go on to become vegetarians themselves. If you could deliver leaflets in your local area, you would be spreading our message to people who may otherwise get no opportunity to see it. You can deliver as many or as few as you can manage – even distributing some at your workplace can be useful.

Viva! works with hundreds of local campaigners up and down the country. As a campaigner you can take campaigning one stage further by meeting the public. By doing things like holding street stalls and taking part in Days of Action you let people know about the way animals are treated and give them a chance to find out more. Using Viva!’s professional and striking campaign materials - like posters, leaflets and petitions - you can really make an impression. We’ll keep you informed about all our campaigns and how you can help. Campaigners do as much or as little to support Viva!’s work as they want and most people find communicating directly with the public rewarding, enjoyable and even addictive!

Of course, there might already be a group in your area you could get in touch with and help out (click here to see the list of Viva! Contacts).

Being a Contact

Contacts are campaigners who are willing to have their contact details made available to the public or press. That way, if other people in the area get in contact with us we can just give them the Contact’s details. The local press love a local angle to a story and often want to talk to someone in the area – Contacts really help to get our message out to tens of thousands of people. We only give out the details people want us to – sometimes just a phone number or email address – and we’ll give you all the advice you need about talking to the media.